Going Big with Dynamics CRM

Dynamics CRM’s entry into the enterprise market is attributable in large part to the work of system integrators such as Avanade, which ran early benchmarks on the product’s third version to determine whether it could handle enterprise workloads. Avanade has since deployed several Dynamics CRM installations that support more than 1,000 users. For example, in 2006, the integrator rolled out a 1,200-seat deployment (with plans to expand to 3,000 seats) at real estate and money-management firm Jones Lang LaSalle, replacing a variety of disconnected, legacy customer relationship management applications at the company.

Despite Dynamics CRM’s base ability to support relatively large workloads, the product was not initially designed for large customers. Consequently, partners like Avanade must work around product gaps or write custom code to solve problems that the product does not address natively.

Among others, these typically include the following:

Integration with other applications. Avanade has relied on custom callouts (renamed plug-ins in CRM 4.0) to flag changes to CRM records and has developed various back-end connectors that provide integration with applications and platforms from vendors such as IBM, Oracle, and SAP. Such tools help organizations synchronize CRM data with other key applications, such as accounting and manufacturing systems.